SSX Blur Review

When the original SSX launched for the PlayStation 2 back in 2000, it included an in-your-face logo screen of EA Sports Big that was complete with a big, booming voice pronouncing the name of the publisher in no uncertain terms. Seven years later, the SSX series has debuted on the Nintendo Wii with SSX Blur, but both the logo and the voice talent have mellowed--less Danzig and more Dan from accounting. To a certain extent, the same is true for the game itself. While SSX Blur has moments of frustration that will have you raising your own voice, it remains another solid--if a bit more mellow--entry in the SSX series.

Certain ingredients in the SSX formula never change. Your goals in Blur remain the same: tackle a number of challenging snowy peaks in a variety of events and tournaments that run the gamut from straight downhill blasts to the finish line to trick events that have you pulling off increasingly more complex tricks. You must do all this while taking on a colorful cast of characters, many of whom have returned from previous entries in the SSX series.

While you won't feel out of sorts in the SSX events, the controls are a different matter entirely. As you might expect from any game on the Wii, SSX Blur controls very differently from the other games in the series, as well as any snowboarding game you've ever played. The good news is that for the most part the controls work beautifully. You use both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk accessory to control your character; the Nunchuk does the lion's share of controlling your character when his or her board is touching the ground, and the Wii Remote controls your character when he or she is in midair. When the controls work well, such as steering your character by using a combination of the Nunchuk analog stick and titling the controller left or right, it feels really good, adding an entirely new dimension and feel to zipping down the mountains. The sensitive controls are buoyed by fine character animations that show off each bump and undulation on the peaks, giving you a real sense of being on the mountain.

Unfortunately, the trick controls don't always keep up, although the basics are there. For example, to execute a jump, you simply move the Nunchuk controller up quickly or press the A button on the Wii Remote. Once in the air, you move the Wii Remote in any direction, and your character will respond with a variety of flips and spins that at first feels like a revelation. But after a while, it begins to feel more than a bit random. Sooner or later, you stop caring about the exact trick you're pulling off and begin moving the remote around in a random fashion, watching your character pull off increasingly bizarre strings of moves that often seem disconnected from the controller.

The ubertricks are the worst offenders. To gain access to ubertricks, you have to fill up your "groove" meter by pulling off tricks. Once you've gained enough groove, you can attempt an ubertrick by holding down the A button and tracing a pattern with your Wii Remote. Small pattern icons pop up onscreen, indicating various ubertrick patterns in your arsenal (and you can earn more ubertricks as you progress through the game). While you can get away without mastering ubertricks early in the game, you won't get very far in the late tournaments without mastering at least a couple because they provide huge point bonuses over your standard tricks. Here's the problem though: They don't always work. We were able to get only the most basic of ubertricks to work on a regular basis and, even then, not so much. It's almost as if the developers understand how tough the ubertricks are because the game provides you with an ubertrick tutorial and a feature that let's you practice patterns over and over (and over) in an ubertrick menu screen until you get it right. Whether it's a matter of the Wii Remote not being sensitive enough, the trick patterns being too complex, or some combination, ubertrick controls in SSX Blur feel like a failed experiment.

If you can manage to keep your Wii Remote strapped to your wrist (as opposed to smashed against the wall in frustration), you'll find the rest of Blur an enjoyable ride. For one thing, the learning curve in the game is excellent (ubertricks notwithstanding). Early in the game, the races are easy, and the demands on your trick ability are minimal. However, it won't be long before you're regularly tackling halfpipes for 800,000 points or more at a pop. One notable exception is the slalom events, which seem abnormally difficult from the get-go and only get worse as the tournaments continue.

As has always been the case in SSX, Blur has tons of unlockables to explore, including new characters, new outfits, new tricks to learn, and new skis or snowboards to pick up. The game is also well organized. You can simply drift about on the snow, picking up challenges as you make your way down the slopes, or you can make your way to specific areas of the three peaks in the game, which will then automatically enter you into that competition. Finally, if you want instant access to the different events, you can access all of the slope events and tournaments from a menu. The game has a few too many loading screens, but getting from one event to the next is not too bad.

SSX Blur's game modes are straightforward. The single-player game features a tutorial to get you used to the controls, a quick-play option to get on the mountain quickly, and a career mode where you take control of any unlocked rider to compete in events and tournaments. Competing in these events helps to improve your character's attributes. Multiplayer consists of either split-screen competition in race or trick events, or hotseat events where players take turns in events and compare high scores.

While elements of Blur will feel familiar, namely the recycled tracks, the game's art style feels fresh. The character designs are more cartoonlike than before, which suits the Wii's aesthetic just fine. The characters are animated beautifully, and little touches, such as a character being covered with snow head to toe after a wipeout, are fun to see. Despite an overall fine sense of speed to the downhill action, there are occasional frame-rate hitches that can drag things down. In addition, it's not uncommon to get your character temporarily stuck in a corner (say, between the edge of a cliff and a rail). If you exit the playable area, the game also has a tendency to warp you to strange spots. For example, during one slalom race we entered, we went over the side of a cliff, only to be respawned far away from any of the remaining slalom flags. Worse yet, we weren't penalized for missing those flags.

Another consistent feature in the SSX series has been high-quality sound design, and that's still the case with SSX Blur. The sound of the board meeting the snow is excellent, varying between the soft swish of powder and the crackling skid of sheets of ice. The music, upbeat and slightly funky as always, is also excellent in Blur. It morphs and twists with the various successes and failures of your jaunt downhill.

It's too bad that SSX Blur's controls are so uneven, because if not for the maddeningly inconsistent ubertricks, Blur would be a sure thing. Unfortunately, there's nearly as much frustration to be derived from this inconsistency as there is pleasure from the other quality features in the game. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and pick up the game if you're a longtime SSX fan or a Wii owner looking to get your snow sports on; it just means that you should know what you're getting into beforehand.

Tag it:

The Tiger Woods golf games from EA Sports have always let you step into the shoes of one of the world's greatest golfers, regardless of your skill with a real club. But now that the game is showing up on the Wii, you can't hide behind your analog stick anymore. Instead, you actually have to pick up a remote and swing it like you would a real golf club. No matter how good your in-game stats are, there's no compensating for an ugly swing. So it's time to start practicing your follow-through, because Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 is going to put your swing to the test.

We recently grabbed a Wii Remote and played a few holes of Tiger Woods 07. The game, of course, uses the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote to translate your real-life swing into an onscreen stroke. Before taking your shot, you can hit the minus button to step off the ball and take a practice swing. We found this to be a very helpful feature for getting a feel of just how hard you need to swing to put the ball where you want it to go. After you've taken enough practice swings, you can press the minus button again to square up to the ball. From here, you simply pull the Wii Remote back and then swing it forward like you would with a golf club. While the ball is in the air, you can shake the remote while holding a direction on the D pad to put spin on the ball. The button-mashing power boost has been removed and is instead incorporated into the swing. As a result, you can perform a moderate swing to get 100 percent power, but if you swing extra hard, you can get a boost all the way up to 110 percent power.

Earning those eagles and birdies isn't quite as simple as just swinging the remote, though. You have to be careful of how you hold the remote when you swing. For a straight shot, you'll want to hold the remote so the buttons are facing up toward you, but if you want to put a draw or a fade on the ball, you can tilt the remote left or right while swinging. If you intend to curve your shot around obstacles, this can be quite useful, but it can also cause problems if you do it unintentionally. We noticed that when we got too hasty with our swing, it was easy to slice or shank the ball off into the deep rough or into a bunker.

Putting is slightly more delicate, because you're dealing in measurements of inches rather than yards. You can adjust your aim with the D pad and take all the practice swings that you need. Once you're ready, you simply pull back the remote a short distance (less than a foot for most putts) and then swing it forward. The putting takes a bit more getting used to than the approach and tee shots, but we were able to sink some 20- and 30-foot putts without much difficulty. Of course, we were playing on some of the more forgiving greens the game has to offer.

Despite the subtle nuances of the swing in Tiger Woods 07, we found it to be relatively easy. The version we were playing was understandably running on a lower difficulty setting to allow newcomers to get used to the basic mechanics, but we found that we were able to sink eagles and birdies within just a few minutes of picking up the remote. There is an option to adjust the difficulty in the game, though, so if you're looking for a break or a steeper challenge, you'll be able to find it.

The True-Aiming circle that debuted in other versions of Tiger Woods 07 returns on the Wii, but this time you can use the remote to drag and drop the circle wherever you want it to go. You simply hold the A button to zoom down the course to where the aiming circle is and then point the remote at the TV to get a small hand to appear. You can then use that hand to "pick up" the circle and place it where you want it. In our experience the drag-and-drop aiming wasn't especially interesting, and if anything, felt slightly more cumbersome than simply moving the aiming circle with the D pad.

Included in this version of Tiger Woods 07 are 18 different courses and 35 golfers. You'll see famous PGA courses such as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, as well as a handful of fantasy courses. The game modes include the traditional Tiger Challenge, as well as a PGA Tour season, a quickplay mode, and a practice mode. In addition, there are some familiar minigames such as the target shoot, where you try to land the ball on a number of targets of varying difficulty, and the skills 18, which has you trying to shoot through colored rings on the course. The green rings are easy to hit and get you a small amount of points, while the yellow and red rings are progressively more difficult to hit but award more points. There's certainly plenty of golf in this game to keep you busy, but you don't have to play by yourself. While there is no online multiplayer, you can get a group of friends together for some four-player multiplayer. Just be careful not to stand behind someone who's about to tee off or you're liable to get a face full of Wii Remote.

The visuals are impressive in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 on the Wii. The courses all look good, with plenty of detail in the surroundings as well as in the greens, fairways, and bunkers. The characters look lifelike and animate smoothly, as well. The game does support 480p resolution and widescreen, for enhanced picture quality. As for the sound, you can expect to hear David Feherty and Gary McCord returning once again to provide the commentary. To further enhance the feel of your swing, you'll hear an impact sound emit from the speaker in the Wii Remote when your club strikes the ball.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 is scheduled to come out for the Wii in March of this year. Based on what we played of the game, it seems like it will offer the deep game of golf that the Tiger Woods series is known for, but will offer a much different style of play. In the meantime, start practicing your swing and keep checking back here for further updates.

Tag it:

Tecmo Bowl Review

With Madden growing more complex with every passing year, it's not uncommon to hear older players yearning for the old days, when sports games had just a couple of buttons, yet were still fun. One such game was Tecmo Bowl, a game that seems almost absurdly simple today but was impressive for its time, thanks to its roster of real players and limited selection of plays. Though the licensed players are gone, the game is still quite a bit of fun, and thanks to the Wii's Virtual Console, you can see what all of the fuss is about for just five dollars.

Tecmo Bowl has 12 teams, though because Tecmo didn't (and still doesn't) have the NFL license, the teams are identified by location and not team name--so, there's a team named Chicago and its colors are pretty close to those of the Bears, but it's not called the Bears. When the game was originally released, it contained actual NFL players and statistics from the 1989 season. Tecmo no longer has the rights to use players' names, so they're only identified by number now. The 1989 season stats of the player you're controlling are still displayed across the top of the screen. It's not surprising that player names have been removed, but it's still a letdown to not be able to see your childhood favorites reliving their glory days. One of the great things about the game was wreaking havoc as Lawrence Taylor (his alter ego here can still block every kick) or making fools look bad with the incomparable Bo Jackson.

The game modes are simple, especially compared with the game's sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl. You can play what's essentially a season by picking a team and then playing a randomly selected opponent. When you beat that team, it's crossed off the list, and the eventual goal is to beat each team. After the game is over, you're given a password and can pick up where you left off later, or you can also save the game and resume that way. There's also a two-player mode and a coaching mode, where you call the plays and watch as they're executed by the CPU.

On the field is where Tecmo Bowl still shines. The controls are very responsive, and the seemingly simple gameplay contains a surprising amount of depth. The action is viewed from a broadcast-style perspective, so rather than moving up and down the screen, play moves left and right. Before a play, both the offense and defense are given four plays to pick from. Usually, this is two running and two passing plays. If the defense picks the same play as the offense, the play is pretty much doomed and is likely to end in a loss of yards or an interception. On passing plays, once the ball is snapped, you can scroll through your receivers, who are represented by a small icon when they run off the screen downfield. Your pass will go to whoever is highlighted when you hit the pass button. Running the ball is as easy as pressing the direction you want to run on the D pad and then zigzagging your way down the field to avoid tackles. If you get wrapped up by a defender, you can break a tackle by frantically mashing on buttons. Defense is simple, too. Before the play starts, you can scroll through your defenders, and once the play starts, you're free to go after the QB, stuff the run, or play pass coverage. Even though you can't see the receivers offscreen, pass coverage is pretty easy because you've just got to line your icon up atop the receiver's to most likely intercept the pass.

Tecmo Bowl never looked amazing, but the graphics get the job done. The players are large, but their animation is simple and players will still flicker when the screen gets crowded. There are a few cutscenes to add some pizzazz after touchdowns and at halftime. People that haven't played the game before likely won't be excited about the audio, but anyone who played the original game will enjoy the announcer that yells "touchdown!" after a score, as well as the game's catchy theme song that plays during kickoffs.

Even though Tecmo Super Bowl is the better game, Tecmo Bowl is still fun, albeit a bit shallow as a single-player game. It's at its best when you're sitting around with friends passing the controller around and talking trash.

Tag it:

Mario Strikers Charged Hands-On

While Super Paper Mario is garnering the most attention at this year's Game Developers Conference, there are plenty of other noteworthy games on display in Nintendo's booth. One such game is Mario Strikers Charged, a follow-up to the 2005 GameCube soccer game Super Mario Strikers. Not a lot has changed since we first saw and played the game last August, but we did get the chance to check out another field and all the hazards that go along with it.

You start by selecting a team captain, each of which has individual attributes. Mario, Princess Peach, and Donkey Kong were available to choose from. You then pick from characters like Toad, Boo, and Bones to make up the rest of your squad. The field we saw was high atop a volcanic island in the middle of the sea. The dark clouds in the sky indicated a storm was brewing, and there was lots of wind, which normally wouldn't be so bad, but here it can blow you right off the field if you stray too close to the edge. Other fields will have similar hazards. The other pitch we saw was surrounded by an invisible electric fence that would shock players that got too close.

After Mario went all extreme and dropped in from the sky, the match began. The action is largely reminiscent of Super Mario Strikers; it was simple and quite fast. It doesn't take long to figure out the controls, even with a new control scheme that uses both the Nunchuk and the Wii Remote. The analog stick on the Nunchuk moves your player and the C button uses power-ups, which you're awarded when the other team tackles one of your players that doesn't have the ball. On the Wii Remote, you use the D pad to perform dekes, the B button to shoot (or hold it to charge), and the A button to pass. One of the special attacks we saw was when Donkey Kong activated a power-up and took a shot. The screen switched to a first-person perspective for the goalie, and we had to line up a cursor to block multiple shots on goal. If you miss too many, the ball goes in the net and you're treated to (or humiliated by) one of the game's over-the-top goal celebrations.

The game currently lets up to four players play on one system, and when we asked about online support, we were told it was "undecided at this time." The two playable modes we were able to check out were domination mode, which was just a quickplay option, and road to the cup, where you'll take on teams of increasing difficulty in your quest to take home the trophy. There's no firm release date yet, but the game appears to be quite far along, even if we didn't see a whole lot of new content this time around.

Tag it: